Color vision deficiency affects about 5% to 8% of men and 0.5% of women worldwide. It is a genetic vision impairment comprising several different kinds and degrees of color vision deficiencies. For example, protanomaly (a.k.a. “red-weakness”) is one type of vision deficiency. Any redness seen in a color by a normal observer is seen more weakly by the protanomalous viewer. This may cause red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, and green to appear somewhat shifted in hue towards green, and all appear paler than they do to the normal observer. Deuteranomalous (a.k.a. “green-weakness”) is another type of color vision deficiency. It is characterized by a difficulty in discriminating small differences in hues in the red, orange, yellow, green region of the spectrum; they appear somewhat shifted towards red. One difference between deuteranomalous individuals and protanomalous individuals is deuteranomalous individuals do not have a loss of “brightness” problem that protanomalous individuals may have. Dichromasy is yet another color vision deficiency in which the individual may not be able to see a perceptible difference between red, orange, yellow, and green; all these colors appear to be the same color.
There are many methods available for groups of individuals to engage in conferencing. One common method, videoconferencing, involves one or more individuals located at one location engaging in a video conference with one or more individuals located at one or more other locations. Videoconferencing involves the use of video equipment, such as cameras and displays, which present the remote users with video imagery (often in color) of the local users. Just as color vision deficiencies can present individuals with difficulties in real life, they can also present challenges in viewing and participating in a video conference.
Some solutions, not directed to visually enhancing a video conference, include the use of tinted lenses in prescription eye glasses. These may help aid those with red-green deficiencies but they do not help wearers perceive or appreciate colors as do people with normal color vision nor are they able to help individuals with yellow-blue deficiencies or total color vision deficiencies. Another solution involving video relies on adjusting a color of the video to compensate for a particular individuals deficiency. As with the tinted lenses this only provides a limited perception improvement.